day thirty, barielle shades lava rock

i can't believe it's been 30 days! sometimes changing my polish every day can be arduous but i have grown accustomed to it really. today is a surpsingly vampy colour. lava rock is a nice blackened burgundy from the all lacquered up collection. i haven't had much chance to go outside in the sunshine so i can only state that in household lights it is disappointingly black. i definitely need to get outside wearing this colour to capture it's true beauty and i'm sad i didn't have that chance today. i have seen full daylight swatches of this colour and it was beautiful. please trust that these don't do it justice.

day twenty nine, zoya pasha

i am resisting the urge to write every new post with, 'xxx (brand) is one of my favourites' as they are ALL my favourites. i don't buy nail polish i don't like (why would i!?). anyway, here is another one from zoya - the 2nd of my 3 free tweet zoya polishes. pasha is a great neutral/nude/putty/mushroom type of colour that i am incredibly fond of. at first glance the bottle looks a little disappointing, i was worried it would be 'too' nude and not interesting enough. thankfully my fears were unfounded! it has a kind of ...pearly finish. which is tough to describe but it has just a really nice finish and shine to it, almost a milk based gloss on the top that you can see in the bottle. it's definitely a weird nude which makes it right up my alley! i have quite a few shades that are a variation on this so expect to see many more!!

day twenty eight, nubar wildlife

so, nobody does a duochrome like nubar. they are the kings, queens, masters and mistresses of this. they recently released a collection of 6 green (green!!!!!! so exciting) polishes called the 'going green' collection and this is one of them, 'wildlife'. it is a beautiful golden/green duo. it is slightly reminiscent of yesterday's yellow green colour and the gold is this wonderful antiquey colour with a warmth and subtlety...oh it's just beautiful. nubar are so smart at creating duochromes with colours that complement each other (although i can only imagine how AWFUL it would be if the colours didn't work well together) but they just bring each other out. it is great to see flashes of green or flashes of gold depending on the light and how your fingers are in that moment. it is a great twist on a more conservative colour.

day twenty seven, barielle shades polished princess

we're finally at the end of individual brands! from here on out it's a free for all. the final brand i'm showing is barielle shades. i don't know where this polish is available besides their official website but they have wonderful colours and they are $8/bottle. this colour - polished princess is from the all lacquered up collection (eponymous of the blogger who designed them). it's a great yellow goldy green unlike any other green i own. i tend to veer towards the more blackened greens, racing greens...this bright and cheerful colour is truly lovely and lively. it has a very subtle shimmer but only when really in the light.


(yes i totally smudged my ring finger)

day twenty six, icing roger that

here is another frustrating colour..well it's teh same as before. blue-green-teal. IMPOSSIBLE TO CAPTURE! it just looks blue i swear it isn't blue. it reminds me a bit of the ocean. icing is a brand by accessories store claires. from what i've read icing polishes cost $4.50/each but tend to have a buy 2nd polish 1/2 off deals...all the time. i've never looked in a claire's UK to see if they have icing...but i'm pretty sure they don't!! roger that is another shimmery, sparkly blue-green-teal. unlike yesterday's OPI la boheme the sparkles (microglitter...so no difficult removals!) are more silvery (whereas la boheme's are red and a bit of orange..which makes the red of the base polish glow because the sparkle reflections are the same colour). it is wonderful to capture these shimmer/glitter/sparkle polishes in the sunlight because it looks like they are covered in diamonds. and the teal colour is so unlike any other...i don't have any other teal shimmers!

i can't believe this has been going for almost a month and that i have this many different polish brands! 1 more to go and then it's a free for all where you see whatever i feel like wearing! i am gobsmacked that anyone even bothers to read this! i am a huge nail blog reader and the people who write them...they're like my nail polish heroes so i never expected anyone to read my dinky posts and thoughts. so thank you to anyone who's reading, i feel so important!

on with the pictures:

day twenty five, opi la boheme

so it took me awhile to decide what OPI to use as my first opi polish post. i went over a lot of possibilities and in the end decided to go with la boheme. this discontinued polish usually is at the top of every polish girl's must have/dream list. it is a beautiful colour and really does deserve all the hype it receives. many years ago opi did a broadway style collection and the rest of the colours were pretty lame (trust me i bought the whole collection) but la boheme is this standout red/orange/green shimmer. it's stunning and the pictures really speak for themselves.

day twenty four, savina marine life

okay. savina is another brand that was recently gifted to me. i've never heard of them and i can't tell you where to get them! what i can tell you...is about the application. this is probably the weirdest applying polish i've ever come across. it applies normally but it dries SUPER thin and it also dries mostly matte. so there's no 'wetlook' within seconds. so it's nice because it dries super fast...but i need like 8 coats to get to completely opacity. which wasn't that big of a deal because it dried so quickly....it was just REALLY weird. i've never seen a polish dry so thin, especially when it doesn't seem to be thin in the bottle!

this colour, marine life is driving me NUTS. i cannot capture it!!! it just looks blue. but it is really a blue green teal kinda colour. so...imagine these are blue green teal. i know they just look blue...this colour is out to get me! i also did not apply a topcoat. i'm interested to see what the wear time is like on this polish (well..all 24 hours that i wear it!)

i think it's also worth noting that the bottle is basically an exact copy of the china glaze bottle. but i don't really know what the significance is...


(i tried to hold the camera far away and use the flash...but it still looked blue)




(playing with Konad again...you can't really see it but there are little hearts)

day twenty three, nars tokaido express

okay, today we have tokaido express by nars. which is super exciting because i was really coveting this polish. it's a great vampy purple but DOES NOT LOOK BLACK (which you know makes me crazy) and it has microglitter throughout so it has a bit of a glow but it's not an in your face effect like the diamond cosmetics one from yesterday.

i also was gifted a konad - a nail design stamping kit whihc is the heart and bow. i suck at it now but i'm hoping to get better.

i know this polish wasn't cheap but i don't know the exact amount. is it the world's greatest polish....probably not but i'm happy to have it.

day twentytwo, diamond cosmetics chainmail charm

so thanks to my lovely friend tori i have a whole slew of new brands to show off (and i forgot OPI before so i wasn't actually done when i thought i was!)

today we have diamond cosmetics....a very cheap (approx $2/bottle) drugstore brand that i had never heard of until another blogger showed some on her blog. i don't know if they are at every drugstore...but they certainly don't exist in the UK! chainmail charm is exactly the in your face holographic primsatic shimmer i wanted but didn't get from colour club 'worth the risque'. this stuff is amazing! great formula, amaaaazing colour! proof that you don't always have to pay top dollar for an excellent product!

i think this is my favourite kind of holographic/prismatic polishes, a glitter/shimmer on a black base:

day twenty one, mac peppermit patti

okay. i lied. i have about 4 or 5 more brands to show! today we have mac peppermint patti from the sugarsweet collection. this colour reminds me of andes mints or green mint chocolate chip ice cream. NOT of peppermint patties! but in any case it's a great minty green colour and i love it. however MAC is notorious for streaky application so it takes about 3 coats to get it even across your nail. there is also a near exact duplicate from british discount brand barryM.


these pictures aren't even close to accurate. it was very hard to capture!!!

day twenty, sally hansen salon wine not?

okay, this is i think officially the second to last day of my brands! hurrah! sally hansen salon range is the more posh version of sally hansen polishes. different bottle, slightly thinner formular and different colours. i love the cap, it is rubber with grippers which makes it easy for my shaky hands to hold onto. wine not? is a goooorrrrgeous wine red with a bit of a shimmer to it. definitely a fantastic polish.

day nineteen, sally hansen insta-dri jumpin jade

okay, more brands! sally hansen is a drugstore brand of nail polish that have been around for ages. insta-dri is i think one of the newer ranges. it comes in a variety of colours and the one i picked for today is 'jumpin jade' a great dark green shimmer. the weird thing about these polishes is the brush...it's a triangle with pretty thick, flat bristles. it's designed to cover your whole nails in one swipe. i haven't got the hang of it really so it's a bit messy when i try to do it (which is pretty obvious in the pictures below!). as for the 'insta-dri' claim...i have no idea. i don't ever just leave my polish without a topcoat and i don't attempt to touch it until after the topcoat is long dry since i don't want to leave big fingerprint smudges in wet polish! but it's a great colour, a nice cheapish readily available line.

day eighteen, butter london london underground

okay. i don't know about anyone else but i can't believe i have over 18 different brands of nail polish (and we aren't even done yet with brands!!). this is as much an experiment for me as it is for anyone reading. i know i said i hate pink and 99% of the time i do but i sometimes make exceptions. butter london are a confusing brand. apparently they are a british but practically unavailable in the UK so i am thinking the 'london' bit is a myth.

however they do have fun and cute polish names. london underground is a true pink fuchsia (unlike rimmel's funtime fuchsia which i compared below which has stronger purple tones). i find butter london polishes to dry a bit matte on the nail instead of shiny so in order to get a 'wet look' shiny nail i am completely reliant on a good topcoat to provide that effect. this is a fun, cute pink colour and reminds me of rainbows and cupcakes (okay...sarcastic but in very few areas am i girly girl and pink has NEVER been my forte!). it reminds me of summer...something that seems to be fleeing far and fast from grey chilly london! it's definitely bright...but not neon bright. application was great, sometimes with 3-free polishes they can be problematic: either too thick or too thin/watery and i tend to use 3 coats with all polishes and these were completely opaque in 2. i just put a 3rd coat on for good measure.

i turned the flash on when comparing the two bottles to try and show that the butter london polish is much pinker in base than the rimmel (which leans purple)